Dom Amore: This CT star athlete living dual lives under Notre Dame’s Golden Dome

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There are moments when Matt Jeffery’s separate lives under Notre Dame’s Golden Dome collide, moments when he finds himself dodging opponents as if returning a punt, absorbing contact, delivering some hits of his own on his way to the goal.

Then the “Football Matt” becomes “Lacrosse Matt” — and he fires the ball into the net.

“It brings me back to when I was a kid, just growing up playing sports.” Jeffery said. “You know, I’ve always played three sports my whole life, playing football, basketball, and lacrosse, and then, lacrosse during the summer. I felt like carrying that on into the next level in the college sports.”

Jeffery was considered the No.1 high school lacrosse player in the country when he finished at Cheshire High in 2024, a natural fit for a Notre Dame program coming off back-to-back national championships. An All-Stater in football, he was encouraged by coaches to walk onto the storied football team in South Bend, Ind., too.

“Everything I prepared for before college playing those multiple sports and just getting different coaching from different people, learning different movements,” he said, “I didn’t think twice about trying to do it in college.”

Conventional thinking these days: Every sport in college is a yearround commitment. Maybe playing multiple sports was common for elite athletes in the 1940s or ’50s — football Hall of Famer Jim Brown famously played both football and lacrosse at Syracuse — but rare today, especially at a demanding place like Notre Dame. With coaches willing to be flexible, Kevin Corrigan in lacrosse and Marcus Freeman in football, Jordan Faison played both at Notre Dame, before deciding in January to concentrate on football. Jeffery, the ACC Freshman of the Year in lacrosse in 2025, is staying the dual course.

“I knew it was going to be hard,” Jeffery said. “I knew it was going to be a challenge, like Jordan previously mentioned to me before coming up here. It’s going to be different than everyone else and, it’s going to take a lot of hard work and time commitment, and, you know, he wasn’t wrong. After my freshman year, I realized it was manageable to do both.”

As a true freshman, Jeffery, 5 feet 11 and 195 pounds, saw action in four games on special teams and regular offense, preserving his redshirt status, as the Fighting Irish made it to the national championship game, losing to Ohio State.

“Suiting up with all those football guys and putting on the Golden Dome helmet and running out of that locker room for the football games and hearing the Fighting Irish song, it kind of brings it all together,” Jeffery said. “It’s like a surreal feeling when you’re a little kid and you’re dreaming about being in those spots and playing with those guys and then you grow up and you’re eventually in that timeline and then you’re eventually one of those guys that kids are watching and playing.”

Then he joined the lacrosse team, playing in nine games, with six goals and an assist, before sustaining a fractured sternum just before the conference tournament. After winning national championships in 2023 and ’24, the Fighting Irish were eliminated in the quarterfinals.

“What really separates our lacrosse game to the next level,” Jeffery said, “I feel like that chemistry that we’ve got, that we have in that locker room. There’s a bunch of guys that love to stay after practice just to hang out with the guys, you know, don’t want to go home type of thing. Coach Corrigan brought that tradition in, and that’s the culture.”

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Jeffery returned to football in 2025, and caught a pass for 37 yards in a game against Arkansas on Sept. 27. He played in 12 games, on offense or special teams, and caught coach Freeman’s eye with his work in practice, simulating opposing players to help the starters prepare.

“Matt Jeffrey. He’s a guy that spends half of the week on scout team and then half of the week with the offense,” Freeman told reporters in October, “but he’s a difference-maker, right? You talk about guys that elevate the play of others, what he does on our scout team and the look he gives our defense has been unbelievable.”

Notre Dame was left out of the BCS playoffs, which allowed Jeffery to join the lacrosse team in December and hit the turf running. He has played in 13 games, with 11 goals and five assists as the Fighting Irish (10-1) are ranked first in the polls, and the RPI. They will look to avenge their lone loss when they play Virginia in the ACC semifinals on Friday at 5 p.m. Jeffery got his first career hat trick against Duke on April 18.

“Matt’s a guy that can kind of beat his matchup and make the defense move a little bit, and everybody’s job gets a little easier when the defense is moving,” Corrigan told The Observer. “He’s a competitive guy. He puts himself out there every game. Sometimes I wish he’d put himself out there less. He’s taken a beating because he just puts himself right in the mix, but that’s who he is.”

Jeffery is majoring in strategic management at ND’s Mendoza College of Business. The day may come when he has to develop a strategy to manage his athletic career, continue with football and maybe earn a look from the NFL, where elite, versatile athletes are apt to draw attention, or stay with his love of the lax. Until that day comes, he simply wakes up in a great place every morning loving all the components of his life.

“Ever since I stepped foot on campus, I realized how special it was here and magical,” Jeffery said. “I never took a step back and wondered why or questioned myself on why I went here. I went to one of the best schools for all three of the things I want to do: School, football, and lacrosse.”

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